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Life After Death/Issue 26
"Why do you want us to do that?" Dolph questioned. "Well, I know you all are worried that it's gonna make it's way here, so I figured we'd go see where it's at," Ike answered. "Why do you need us?" Eric asked. "It seems like you already have some of your people going with you." "It's better to have more people. If we got swarmed, I don't think the three of us would make it out alive." "And what if they aren't on their way anymore?" Andre asked. "If they see us, they'll be drawn toward the camp again." "Hey, the quicker they get here, the quicker we leave," Dolph stated. "Well, if that happens," Ike started. "We're just going to have to leave, then." "I'm in." "I don't know about this," Andre said. "I think I'd feel better staying here." "That's fine, don't feel like I'm forcing you into this," Ike said. "Alright, I'll go too, I guess. Can't let Dolph go by himself." "Okay, we're all set then?" "Me and Ryan packed the backpack," Bart said. "Good, let's head out, then." "Uh, don't you need to tell your girlfriend or whatever that you're leaving?" Dolph asked as Ike started to walk toward the fence. He stood there for a moment. "She already knows." ---- Owen sat in his tent, alone. He had Spike on his lap, and fed him some crickets. "Daddy said he has to go out," Owen said. "He always has to go out. I wish he'd stay around longer, it's not fun when he's not here." Owen stopped talking and watched the lizard eat. "I'm gonna go see if that new guy wants to play," Owen said once Spike finished. He picked him up and placed him back in the aquarium, leaving the lid open. Emily and Devon sat together by the fire as Emily ate the soup Bart gave him. Owen walked up to Devon and poked his arm. "Can you push me on the swing?" he asked. "Where's your dad?" Devon questioned, and Owen shrugged in response. "Alright, I think I could do that." Owen grabbed Devon's arm and they walked over to the playground while Emily watched. Gregory walked up and sat down beside her. "So...you and Devon...?" Gregory asked in a lighthearted tone. "What? What are you talking about?" Emily panicked. "I'm not stupid, I've seen you two spending a lot of time together." "What I do is none of your business." "I wasn't making it mine." There was a long silence between the two, before Gregory broke it. "You remind me of my son, heh. Always so defensive and overprotective of people he cared about. Talking about him...it reminds me how much I miss him..." "Did he...?" "Die? Yes. I don't really like to talk about it. Point is, you and him...you're a lot alike. You're like family to me, Emily, and it's nice to see that you have someone in your life to make you happy. Devon's a good kid, I'm sure you'll be happy together." ---- "Now, which way did you four head out in yesterday?" Ike asked as they approached the forest. "Straight ahead," Eric said. "That's where we left and came back." "Alright, good. Keep alert, we don't want to get snuck up on." "Zombies can't exactly sneak that well," Ryan said. "You know, all their growling and shit." "Ninja zombies," Bart said with a slight chuckle. "Them the things you're gonna wanna be scared of." "Ninja zombies? You shitting me, Bart? I think you had too much deer." "More like not enough, I could've ate that whole damn thing." ---- Back at the camp, Rachel walked around in search of Ike. Much to her surprise, he was nowhere to be found. "Penny?" Rachel said as she approached Penny, who was sitting on the grass, filling magazines with bullets. "Oh, hey," Penny said. "What's up?" "Have you seen Isaac around?" "Oh, yeah, he left around an hour ago. Surprised you haven't noticed by now." "What?" "Yeah. Him, Ryan, Bart, and two of the newbies went to go look for the horde or somethin'. They asked me to come with but, as you can see, I'm a little busy with my "chores" right now. Man, when are we going to do something entertaining? It's boring as fuck sitting around here." Rachel walked off and put her hands on her head as she slowly shook it. "Rachel?" "That motherfucker..." "What? What's wrong?" "I told Isaac specifically not to go out. What does he do? He goes out!" "Rachel, I don't get it. What's the problem?" "The problem? The problem is he's a lying fuck!" "What are you talking about?" "Earlier today...he came to me and said he was thinking about going after those bandits...I told him not to. It's stupid, and it's not worth risking lives over. He said he wouldn't...but that son of a bitch...and not just that, but he lied to you, and he probably lied to Bart, Ryan, and those other people, too." "Damn...I'm sorry, if I'd of known, I could have stopped him." "No...it's not your fault. It's his. And when he gets back, oh, he's never going to hear the end of this." ---- The five men trudged through the forest, looking around for movement in the trees. While the other men were less thorough, Ike looked along the ground, searched through bushes, and was more on edge. The others started to take note of his odd behavior. "Hey, Ike...you alright, man?" Ryan asked. "Of course," Ike responded. "Why wouldn't I be?" "I don't know, you seem kinda...paranoid." "What do you mean by that?" "Looking in bushes, staring at the ground...the biters ain't gonna come out of there, I hope you realize that." "I'm looking for tracks." Dolph laughed as soon as he heard those words come out of Ike's mouth. "What's so funny?" "Oh, just you thinking that tracks will help anything." "They'd help us know if the biters have been through here." "There have been biters everywhere. Hell, people, too. It's not like seeing a footprint or two is going to lead us to this horde. We aren't tracking people." "No...of course not. You don't need to say the obvious." ---- Matt walked around to the back of the RV where Kumar was still sitting, washing the last of the dishes. Kumar looked back and saw Matt approaching. "Oh, hello," he said. "Hey, got some more dishes," Matt said as he set down a stack of bowls. "Here, let me help." "No, it's fine. I've got it." "Come on, you've been through enough already. Just let me help." Kumar moved to the right a little as Matt sat beside him. They both grabbed a bowl and started scrubbing at it with cloths. "This fucking world," Matt said shaking his head. "Everything's so screwed. Nothing will ever be the same again." "Tell me about it," Kumar said with a sigh. "I lost my best friend of fifteen years in that goddamn attack." "Oh, sorry to hear." "Thank you. Seeing the bullets...tear through his body. It kind of...woke me up. Before, I just saw this as an obstacle. The - what do you call them, biters? - they're deadly, yeah, but...I never realized how bad they were. I just thought that...if we avoided them, we'd be safe. We'd survive this. I was dead wrong. I didn't think about how this would change people...humanity. I didn't think about how dangerous assholes could become once the laws were gone. After what happened, I realized how stupid we had been. We should have been smarter about our camp. We were in the middle of a fucking field...no walls, no fences...hardly any guns. They ripped us to shreds." "I know how you feel. We got attacked by those bandits a few weeks back...we were set up in the back yard of one of those houses, and they got a few of ours. We decided to move down here. Now we can see people coming, we can prepare ourselves. What happened before isn't going to happen again." "I hope not...I don't want to see any of you die. You're good people." "You don't seem so bad, yourself. I'm not the leader here, but I'd welcome you into the group if I could." ---- Gregory got up from the fire and started to walk to his tent to grab a bottle of water, when he saw something through the fence. Two men were approaching it, one was a buff, older native man with a high top fade, red jacket, and ripped jeans. The other was a younger man who looked to be in his late teens with long, brown hair, a tan jacket, and khaki jeans. "Hello, there!" the older man yelled as he waved to Gregory. Gregory looked back at Rachel, who started to sprint to the fence with a pistol in hand. "Hey, no need to point guns at us. We're unarmed. We've been on the road for a while, and we're pretty hungry. We saw this place and we wanted to see if we could get some food." "Matt!" Rachel yelled. "Get over here!" Matt ran from around the RV and stopped right beside her. "Pat them down." Matt opened up the fence and the two men walked in. They raised their arms and Matt started to pat them down. "They've got nothing," Matt said as he backed away. Kumar approached the group from behind. "Who are these guys?" "No idea." "See?" the older man said. "Unarmed. We lost our weapons a few days ago." "How'd that happen?" Rachel questioned. "The corpses attacked," the younger man said. "Wait a minute..." Kumar said silently to Matt. "That kid's voice...he...he's one of the ones who attacked us." Credits * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Deaths *None Trivia *First appearance of . *First appearance of .